SP23: Theoretical reflections around the role of fieldwork in linguistics and linguistic anthropology: Contributions of Indigenous researchers from southern Mexico

This is an English translation of an earlier Special Publication in Spanish:

Cruz Cruz, Emiliana, ed. 2020. Reflexiones teóricas en torno a la función del tra- bajo de campo en lingüística-antropológica: Contribuciones de investigadores indí- genas del sur de México. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication 22.

These six articles, all fruit of the work of Indigenous researchers, come to us at an important moment, feeding the existing debates on “fieldwork” led by Indigenous researchers in the social sciences generally. Yet the volume Theoretical reflections around the role of fieldwork in linguistics and anthropology: Contributions of Indigenous researchers from southern Mexico is a pioneering study into the critiques, discourses, and limitations associated with fieldwork and research in the places where we live and where our families live. This critical edge must be considered when thinking about fieldwork and research in general.

SP23: Theoretical reflections around the role of fieldwork in linguistics and linguistic anthropology: Contributions of Indigenous researchers from southern Mexico

• Introduction
• Foreword
• Translators’ introduction
• SP23 Front Matter
• SP23 Cover
• SP23 Whole Volume
• About the authors
• Cultural glossary for the translations
• Ethical principles in linguistic fieldwork methodologies–According to whom?
• Abstract: This article seeks to establish a dialogue between the methodological proposals that have been put forward for linguistic fieldwork and the growing experiences of Indigenous linguists. It is well known that the theorizing of the methodologies that dictate linguists’ interactions in their communities of study is carried out from a perspective foreign to both the language and the community. These methodologies are designed for and guided by non-Indigenous academics,…
• Between the academy and the community: The trickster who dances at the party and shows her tongue
• Abstract: Explored here are the complexities and challenges that arise from my experience as an Indigenous researcher. As a linguist and anthropologist, I move between both academic and community spaces. During the last two decades, a good part of my research has focused on the documentation and revitalization of Indigenous languages, in particular the Chatino languages. This article addresses my experience as an Indigenous researcher navigating these two spaces with…
• “And what are you getting out of this?” Experiencing fieldwork in your community of origin: From reflection into emotional healing
• Abstract: In this essay I share my fieldwork experience as a Zapotec researcher trained in anthropological and linguistic methodologies. I suggest that fieldwork is experienced differently by colleagues of non-Indigenous origin based on ethical, political and internal relationships that cross my academic projects and my personal life.
• Activism and research for the promotion of literacy in Chatino: Experiences and reflections from fieldwork
• Abstract: In this article, as an insider researcher, I explore my experiences during fieldwork. I discuss personal emotions related to linguistic discrimination and internalization of speakers’ negative attitudes toward their language. Also, I discuss the local power relations in the community social network to which my family belongs, and the violence I experience as a woman. As a local researcher I unveil the realities and adversities that I face doing…
• Between insiders and outsiders: When an indigenous researcher conducts studies in her own community
• Abstract: This work presents the experiences of an Indigenous researcher carrying out linguistic and ethnographic studies within her own community. A growing number of Indigenous peoples are venturing into documentation, description and promotion of their languages of origin. As a field, linguistic documentation and linguistic description were created by and for members of academic institutions that were historically distant from collaborative work with the speakers of Indigenous languages. The author’s…
• Sk’an jtsatsubtastik ko’ontontik: Dialogues, challenges, and complexities of being a Tsotsil researcher
• Abstract: The article reflects on the experiences of a researcher of Tsotsil origin trained in the fields of linguistics and anthropological linguistics, who lives in the same territorial space of the study community. Specifically, it examines the implications and challenges of being a woman, a Tsotsil and a researcher, who, on the one hand, delves into the social and community spaces that are exclusive to men, and on the other,…